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What's so frustrating is that he/they aren't wrong - pharma and food industries and etc are worthy of contempt for decades of malfeasance that has directly impacted the public health of this country. But I don't see RFK going after pharma bullshit like useless drugs that just exist to extend patent rights. I don't see him going after the blatant price-gouging for things like insulin and other staple drugs for blood pressure, diabetes, stroke prevention, cancer, etc. I don't see him taking on the huge insurance bureaucracies, or the incredibly excessive administrative costs in our system. I don't see him going after companies that violate public health rules and cause disease outbreaks (like the recent Boar's Head debacle.)

No, instead we'll get anti-vax and neutricitical horseshit and rolling back of hygiene standards.

What's so frustrating about RFK in particular is THAT MOTHERFUCKER KNOWS BETTER. He knows the number one sources of heavy metal poisoning (including mercury) are ENVIRONMENTAL, and result from things like coal-mining, fracking and our shit water infrastructure.

Yet, I don't expect we'll see any focus on the fact that American in the 21st century can't guarantee access to clean water for all of its citizens.

What a sick fucking joke.

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What do you think he'll do with labeling and country of origin food standards, if anything? Not even sure that'd be under his purview.

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I’m waiting for when Grandfather Nurgle’s forces get summoned centuries ahead of schedule, and we finally learn RFK was three Nurglings in a trench coat all along. In terms of vintage diseases, I’m expecting polio to make a comeback.

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founding

I spent my whole academic career specializing in parasites and diseases, and the evolution thereof, and in retirement I get THIS! Not prone to expletives, but FFFFFFFFFFFFF. And in answer to your question Jack, how about a little whooping cough, although it's hard to argue with some plague, lovely disease.

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I wonder how many of my trauma patients are gonna deny their TDAP vaccines now...

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So... it's been a long time since I did any reading of - or on - RFK Jr. where vaxxes are concerned. Last thing I remember was they had a piece in Rolling Stone and Salon and it got pulled from one of them - I think Salon, but RS left it up. Or could be the other way around. Anyway, I remember reading it and not really finding all the tinfoil hat anti-vax lunacy I was expecting. So I looked into his statements, again this being a good while ago, and he seemed focused on the use of thimerosal (mercury) in some of the kids' vaccinations, which he tried to link to autism, but which a) isn't supported by the research and b) isn't even used in kids' vaxxes anymore so could not be causing any new cases of autism regardless.

What else has he said? Is he like a staunch anti-vaxxer across the board now? Just the mRNA stuff for COVID? Or something else?

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I think it's the mRNA/COVID vax but also the "vaccine skepticism" and "vaccine choice" stuff that seems to be driving vaccination rates down.

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Ah OK. That makes sense. Personally I've got my doubts about the mRNA COVID "vax" (got it anyway and a few boosters) but I completely disapprove of the way that some people, probably RFK Jr. included, have parlayed some legitimate concerns with that "technology" into general vaccine skepticism and that whole movement has latched onto it, as was entirely predictable. Don't even get me started about the anti-masking idiots.

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The FDA piece actually scares me the most, trying to look into the sourcing & conditions of food you're buying is really, really hard

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